ANKARA – Turkey’s highest court yesterday outlawed the only pro-Kurdish party in parliament for having links to PKK Kurdish rebels in a ruling that could deal a fresh blow to the nation’s faltering EU membership bid.
The European Union had warned that banning the party would violate Kurdish rights and the judicial move could also set back the Turkish government’s drive to end a conflict with militant Kurdish separatists.
The constitutional court voted unanimously to ban the Democratic Society Party after it found the party guilty of co-operating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
The ruling AK Party has worked to enhance Kurds’ cultural rights with the hope of ending a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives. – (Reuters)